Brand new starter does spins does not engage.

[cp2295]

Replaced the starter because it would sometimes engage and start but 90% of the time it would free spin. Replaced it with a brand new unit and still does the same thing. Do I need to shim the starter? It is a cheap unit though, could be I need a new quality starter?

 

[RonD]

What year 4.0l?

Does it have a solenoid on the starter?

Is it a manual or automatic trans?
On some engines a flywheel or flex plate require different starters

 

[cp2295]

It's a 98 4.0, I got the 98 4.0 flywheel and starter for my manual tranny. Tranny is for a 98 too according to the dude I bought it from and everything bolts right up. I have the right starter alignment plate, I noticed on my 3.0s plate there was an extra shim which was not existent on the 4.0s plate

 

[cp2295]

Starter mounted solenoid

 

[cp2295]

Bought a better brand starter from baxters, no more issues and cranks and fires right up..

Anyone living in Vancouver, wa don't go to cost less. Their return policy is horrible, I kept explaining to the dude that the starter wouldn't engage the flywheel because the bendix drive gear was bad (i hope I was saying the right words haha ) anyways he wouldn't return it because it showed up good on the tester, and I kept trying to get him to understand that the starter teeth aren't getting pressure from the engine compression, and so they'll free spin just fine.. However once pressure gets applied to those teeth it quits turning the engine because the gear isn't staying out.. He wouldn't return even after that so I just returned it to another cost less and they refunded me no questions asked.

Moral of that story don't go to cost less they have sh*t parts, if you do go, go to the one on hazel dell they're way nicer and know their stuff a little better..

 

[RonD]

Yes, that is called the Bendix drive, torque of starter motor and Bendix drive pushes out the gear and holds it out.
But not from engine compression, it's a matter of speed, when flywheel/flexplate ring gear is spinning faster than Bendix gear it pulls back, like when engine starts.

But at least you got a new starter and good Bendix

 

[cp2295]

Yeah thank god I was gonna be so upset if this one didn't work.. Never fired the truck up before so I started suspecting something wasn't lining up right or something

 

[RonD]

"new" no longer means "it works"

"new" now means "never been tested before"

We wanted less expensive parts so we got no quality control any more, we are now the quality control, the first to test new parts.

 

[cp2295]

"new" no longer means "it works"

"new" now means "never been tested before"

We wanted less expensive parts so we got no quality control any more, we are now the quality control, the first to test new parts.

I know it's terrible. I got the reman starter and it had a print out of passing all these tests so I figured it should work, at least they test the remans!